The real Abby was very different to how she seemed in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story

In the Netflix show Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, Rebecca Hall’s character Abby Borden comes across as a cartoonish wicked stepmother. But the actual Abby Borden seems to have been very different. Here’s what people from the time period said she was like as a person.

First of all, the real Abby Borden was much older when she died than she looked in Monster. The actor Rebecca Hall is 44. Abby Borden was already 37 when she married Andrew.  

William Moody, a lawyer for the prosecution, described Abby at Lizzie‘s trial. He said: “Abby Durfee Borden, at the time of her death. was about six years younger than her husband, and that would make her, of course, sixty-four years of age … Mrs Borden was a short, fat woman weighing, I believe, in the neighbourhood of two hundred pounds.”

Another lawyer prosecuting Lizzie, Hosea Knowlton, claimed Abby was easy to get along with. He told the jury: “Andrew J Borden had had his little petty quarrels with his tenants, nothing out of the ordinary, but Mrs Abby Durfee Borden had not an enemy in the world.”

Lizzie and Abby at another awkward meal in Monster
(Image via Netflix)

In Monster, the maid Bridget had a challenging relationship with Abby. However, the dynamic seems to have been different in real life. Bridget told the police she was “a lovely woman”, and she stayed working at the house longer than she’d expected as she would have felt guilty leaving. Abby was also the only member of the Borden family to call Bridget by her actual name, instead of “Maggie”.

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Although historians have never figured out whether Lizzie was actually responsible for Abby’s death, witnesses at the trial did suggest Abby’s relationship with Lizzie was tense.

A dressmaker claimed Lizzie once referred to Abby as “a mean good-for-nothing thing”.

Mrs Hannah Gifford, who made cloaks for the families, testified: “I made a sack for Lizzie in March 1892, and had a talk with her about her stepmother. I spoke, and called Mrs Borden ‘mother’. She said, ‘Don’t call her ‘mother’. She is only my stepmother, and she is a mean, hateful old thing.’ I said, ‘Oh Lizzie, don’t say that.’ And then she said she always kept apart from her, and ate her meals alone.”

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is streaming now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image via Netflix.